Daily Readings August 23, 2012

Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time


Lectionary: 422

Reading 1
Ez 36:23-28

Thus says the LORD:I will prove the holiness of my great name,profaned among the nations,in whose midst you have profaned it.

I will prove My greatness to the people of the world before whom, you have made Me look bad.

Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD,when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.

Thus the world will know that I am God when I prove my holiness through your imperfections.

For I will take you away from among the nations,gather you from all the foreign lands,and bring you back to your own land.

Because I will separate you from the world, gather you in far away lands and then bring you back.

I will sprinkle clean water upon youto cleanse you from all your impurities,and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

I will wash you and cleanse and cure you of your idolatries.

I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,taking from your bodies your stony heartsand giving you natural hearts.

I will take away your hearts of stone and put in their place, soft hearts filled with My spirit.

I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,careful to observe my decrees.

With My spirit within you, you will begin to live according to my Commandments.

You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

And I will bring you back to the land I gave your forefathers.  And you will be my people, I will be your God.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

R. (Ezekiel 36:25) I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.

R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.

The response, "I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins", is, of course, an explicit reference to Baptism:

Acts 22:16
King James Version (KJV)
¹⁶ And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. 

The rest of the Psalm summarizes what happens to us when we are converted and turn to God.  

Ephesians 4:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Gospel
Mt 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying,

Jesus addressed the chief priests and the elders of Jerusalem with a parable.

"The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a kingwho gave a wedding feast for his son.He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,but they refused to come.

The Kingdom of heaven is heaven or the Church.
The King is God.
The Wedding Feast is the Church.
The Servants are the Patriarchs, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Israel, Isaac.
The invited guests are the Israelites.

A second time he sent other servants, saying,'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,my calves and fattened cattle are killed,and everything is ready; come to the feast."'

The second wave of invitations are Moses and the Prophets.
The banquet is heaven.  Spiritually speaking, it is also the Mass or the Eucharist or the Gathering in the Mass.

Some ignored the invitation and went away,one to his farm, another to his business.The rest laid hold of his servants,mistreated them, and killed them.

Some of the Jews simply ignored the invitations.  But some actually killed the messengers, the Prophets who brought the invitations.

The king was enraged and sent his troops,destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

The King is God.  And Scripture documents that God sent the Babylonians and the other pagan nations to destroy Israel in order to humble the Israelites.  It was also a fulfillment of the curses:

Deuteronomy 28:45
King James Version (KJV)
⁴⁵ Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

Then the king said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,but those who were invited were not worthy to come.

Now, since the Jews did not accept the invitation, God offered the invitation to the nations:

Isaiah 11:10
King James Version (KJV)
¹⁰ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Acts 13:46
King James Version (KJV)
⁴⁶ Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Go out, therefore, into the main roadsand invite to the feast whomever you find.'The servants went out into the streetsand gathered all they found, bad and good alike,and the hall was filled with guests.

And the gentiles have answered the call wholeheartedly.  They have filled the Church.

But when the king came in to meet the guestshe saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.He said to him, 'My friend, how is itthat you came in here without a wedding garment?'But he was reduced to silence.Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,and cast him into the darkness outside,where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'Many are invited, but few are chosen."

But God is no respecter of persons.  Whether you be Gentile or Jew, lest you be clothed in righteousness, you will be cast out into the darkness:

Romans 2:1-13

King James Version (KJV)

1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.² But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.³ And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?⁴ Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?⁵ But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;⁶ Who will render to every man according to his deeds:⁷ To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:⁸ But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,⁹ Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;¹⁰ But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:¹¹ For there is no respect of persons with God.¹² For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;¹³ (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Sincerely,

De Maria